Considered one of the most important collage filmmakers of the American avant-garde, Lewis Klahr's films sit uneasily outside of film genre-neither animation nor documentary nor melodrama. Using cut-out collage from a range of mass culture print and sound sources, as well as more singular artifacts such as found photographs, objects, and images that he shot himself, he has made over sixty films, ranging from shorts of a few minutes, to long-form series and feature-length works.

Taken as a whole, Klahr's body of work can be seen as a kind of private archive of transitional moments in twentieth-century American society, assembled through carefully collected and deployed artifacts of the mass culture that emerged throughout the century. The tensions between the inert stillness of the documents he works with-frozen in the time they were originally made-and their stuttering movements across the frame creates an uncanny half-life-not only of the objects, but of the historical moments from whence they came. Growing out of a series of conversations between Klahr and myself about the historiographic aspects of his work, this program focuses on how his films conjure the most ephemeral and enigmatic aspects of the past.

A Thousand Julys 2010, 6:30 mins, Color, Digital Video
April Snow 2010, 10 mins, Color, Digital Video
Well Then There Now 2011, 19:30 mins, Color, DigiBeta, From the artist
Two Hours to Zero 2004, 8:30 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist
Marietta's Lied 1998, 5 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist
The Aperture of Ghostings (Elsa Kirk, Catherine Street, Creased Robe Smile) 2001, 13:30 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist
Daylight Moon 2002, 13 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist

Lewis Klahr will appear at San Francisco Cinematheque on Friday, December 2 with his newest series, Prolix Satori.